Luka’s Corner

Today, as I was watching ESPN First Take on ESPN2, sportswriter Skip Bayless made a comment to Scoop Jackson on the segment 1st & 10 that is worth mentioning. To paraphrase it, Bayless said that if LeBron James was on the Los Angeles Lakers and Kobe Bryant was on the Cleveland Cavaliers this postseason, the Denver Nuggets would be playing the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Finals this Thursday. I could not disagree more with this statement.

First of all, before blaming "King James" for their third-round exit this time around, just stop and look at his numbers this postseason. In Cleveland’s series with the Orlando Magic this postseason, James averaged 38-8-8 in the major statistical categories. He single-handedly won Game 2 with a miraculous three-pointer at the buzzer and Game 5 as a scorer and distributor. What I’m trying to say is Cleveland lost because nobody even showed up to help LeBron.

Comparing the Lakers and the Cavaliers, it is clear to me, out of Kobe and LeBron, who has more help. Not only does Kobe have arguably the most skilled big man in the league in Pau Gasol (who has averaged 18.2 PPG and 11.3 RPG in these Playoffs), but he also has Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom as big men. You cannot read this and tell me that the combination of Gasol/Bynum/Odom is not exponentially better than the Cleveland duo of Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Anderson Varejao. In addition, you cannot tell me that the duo of Derek Fisher and Trevor Ariza has been more impressive in these Playoffs than Delonte West and Mo Williams.

More importantly, is the fact that LeBron would take ultimate advantage of these superior pieces. As a point-forward, LeBron James is undoubtedly one of the most gifted passers in recent memory. He has been known over his career to make those around him better. Just look at Varejao, who thrives off of James’ backdoor finds, and Ilgauskas, who lives off of the pick-and-pop with James. Simply imagine what this would look like with Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum.

The NBA Finals are finally set after seven months of preparation and the Cleveland Cavaliers will not play the Los Angeles Lakers for the NBA championship. Not many people can say that at the start of the postseason, they predicted that the Orlando Magic would be in the final round. Everyone wanted a Kobe Bryant vs. LeBron James duel, but it will be a Kobe Bryant/Pau Gasol vs. Hedo Turkoglu/Rashard Lewis/Dwight Howard duel instead. As ESPN’s Chris Broussard explained, the stage was simply not set for the Cavs. However, I firmly believe that this series will be just as exciting.

My reasoning is that if the Cavs made it to the Finals to face the Lakers, the Lakers would have an easier time. During the regular season, Los Angeles had a 2-0 record against Cleveland, even winning in Cleveland to snap the Cavaliers’ home winning streak. Just like the Magic, the Lakers had a favorable match-up with the Cavaliers on all positions. And, as we saw in the Cleveland-Orlando series, regular season series do matter in the postseason. Orlando had won 8 of 11 games against the heavily favored Cleveland and that carried over to the Playoffs.

Unlike the Cleveland-Orlando series, where it was clear that the Magic had a favorable match-up, it is not so in this Finals series. Although Orlando went 2-0 against the Lakers during the regular season, the win at the Staples Center came with Jameer Nelson, who is out for the season, scoring 28 points and hitting big shots down the stretch.

And, while Orlando creates match-up problems for any team they play because they have Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis, Phil Jackson has the appropriate defenders at his disposal. He can counter Orlando’s three-point shooting by going small, putting Kobe Bryant and Trevor Ariza on Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis, while playing Lamar Odom on Dwight Howard. Using this lineup will minimize, to some extent, Orlando’s three-point shooting.

To me, the wild card in this series is Mickael Pietrus. As Orlando’s 6th man, he gives the Magic outside shooting (he outscored Cleveland’s entire bench in the Conference Finals) and stability on defense. He will have he responsibility of guarding Kobe Bryant down the stretch, just as he guarded LeBron James in the Conference Finals. As an athletic defender who stands at 6-6, the Frenchman is the exact kind of guy who can slow Bryant. He is a clear upgrade over Dahntay Jones, who allowed the "Black Mamba" to average 34 PPG off of 48.1% shooting from the field.

As is the case in any Finals, there are plenty of juicy storylines in this Orlando-Los Angeles series to keep those of us who wanted a Kobe-LeBron Final interested. A long series, which I predict this to be, also won’t hurt.